


all the roads we have to walk are winding

by SapphoIsBurning



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Chocolate Box Treat, F/M, Music, Musical Instruments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-08 00:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13446834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphoIsBurning/pseuds/SapphoIsBurning
Summary: Bayley gets a gift, a lesson, and a surprise from Elias, in that order.





	all the roads we have to walk are winding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RedLeaderfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedLeaderfic/gifts).



Bayley sat on the floor, her hoodie folded under her to cushion her tailbone. She couldn't afford to put her legs to sleep but this was going to take practice, so she might be sitting there for a while. She had two floppy paperback books open in front of her, along with dozens of printed out webpages, besides an app that her phone was struggling to run correctly. All that on top of the guitar in her lap.

Elias made it look so easy.

She strummed the one chord he had shown her, E minor. "Hello, my name is Bayley," she said to no one. "I'm going to play some songs for you."

She put her fingers in the position for the first, then second, then third chords she was trying to play. "Down, down," she said out loud while strumming. "Down, down, down up down up, down up down up down up, down up down up down up up-- wait." It didn't sound quite right. This was supposed to be a song a lot of people got started on guitar with, and a lot of people asked Elias to play it, and it seemed as good of a place to start as anywhere.

She thought back to what an E minor chord looked like on the piano--all white keys. She had taken lessons for a little while as a kid but the only time her teacher was available was the same time Raw came on in California, so she quit, of course. This was suddenly the first time she had ever regretted it.

She strummed a few times more and tried to get through the intro of the song. It was four chords. It seemed like a lot of songs only had four chords in them. Down, up, down-up-down-up-down up.

"Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you," she sang, slowly, trying to hit the chords at the right time. "By now, you should have...shoot." A draft stirred the pages in front of her and they scattered, and now the words and the chords and the chord diagrams were all lost.

She tried to stand up and catch them but she got tangled in her own guitar strap, and the body of the guitar bumped against the ground with a loud klang.

"Here," a deep voice said.

She looked up. Elias was walking up behind her. She hadn't heard him approach, what with all the strumming.

He didn't have his guitar with him, just a small black case with a handle. He put it down on the floor and chased down the papers while Bayley tried to calm her blushing cheeks. Had he heard? Was she doing okay?

He didn't say anything, just handed the papers back to her.

"Thanks," she said.

There was a pause where he looked like he was gathering his thoughts.

"I...got you something," he said.

"Really?" Bayley asked.

"Can I sit down?" He said.

"Pull up a floor," Bayley said, laughing at her own joke and then feeling nervous that it wasn't that funny. She set her guitar down on the floor in front of her, on top of all the papers so they wouldn't fly away.

He sat down next to her, close enough that she felt suddenly warmer.

He held the small black case out to her.

She frowned, examining it. There were big latches that she undid and opened the lid.

It was a ukulele.

"This is for me?" Bayley asked.

"Four strings, four fingers," Elias said. "Easy peasy. Thought it might be a little better for a beginner."

"Oh," Bayley said. She felt a little lightheaded as she picked the instrument up and turned it over in her hands. It was smooth, shiny light colored wood with mother of pearl inlays, and some kind of dials and lugs on the side. "I'm sorry, the guitar was a bad idea, I don't know--"

"You're great," Elias said at the same time.

They both clammed up and looked at each other.

"You were sounding pretty good there," Elias said. "I stood there listening with the door open and the dang breeze messed up all your song sheets."

"Oh," Bayley said. "Thanks."

"Do you want to try it?" Elias asked, inclining his head.

"I don't know any chords," Bayley said. But she ran her finger down the strings and they rang out cheerfully and a little mournfully too. "It's so pretty. Is this really for me?"

"You should have one," Elias said firmly. "Nobody can be sad when there's a ukulele around. Kind of like you." He glanced up and their eyes met. A hint of a shy smile lit up Elias's eyes.

"Can you show me?" Bayley blurted. "Since all the finger stuff is different."

"Yeah," Elias said. He pulled a folded piece of paper out of his back pocket and put it down. "I got a couple of chord charts too." He took the instrument from Bayley and balanced it in front of him. "This is E minor, it's pretty easy, and A minor and C are really simple, see? Just one finger. And G is like this." He strummed to illustrate and Bayley watched his fingers curl to gently press down the strings. It was an awfully soft movement from a man as powerful as Elias, and the thought of what else he could do with his fingers popped into her mind unbidden.

"So, did you get all that?" Elias asked, bringing Bayley out of her reverie.

"Um...no," she said truthfully.

"I always go too fast," Elias said, his eyes hooded. "Well. Not always." He cleared his throat.

"Slow is good," Bayley said in a strained voice. "I guess you could try again, or maybe...you could help me try it."

"What did you have in mind?" Elias asked.

"What if you helped me finger the chords and I strummed," Bayley said. "If you sat a little closer."

"I’m pretty good at fingering," Elias said. “I mean. Well.” He was blushing under his beard, Bayley was sure.

He handed her back the ukulele, then moved to sit down right behind her. Very close behind her. "How's this?"

Bayley leaned back against his chest and his arms came around her, his left hand on top of her left hand cradling the neck of the instrument. His beard brushed against her neck. "Perfect," she said.

"You're shaking," Elias said.

"Just nervous."

Elias chuckled. "Do you want to start over from the top?" He asked.

“Sure,” she said.

There was pre-show hustle and bustle starting to build around them but Bayley had picked a pretty secluded corner.

He guided her fingers to the chord. “Whenever you’re ready. You play, I’ll sing.”

She nodded. Down, down, up. He moved her fingers and whispered, “G.” Down up down up down up. “D.” Down up down up down up. “A.” And she kept strumming.

He did it again. They went through the progression a few times, probably longer than the intro of the song.

Bayley’s phone buzzed. It was a text from Sasha: “GET SOME GIRL, HE IS TASTY” followed by an impenetrable string of food emojis ending with an eggplant. She just kept strumming. Her hand fit on the strings really well, and the floor was a lot more comfortable with someone to lean on.

Elias began to sing. “I walk these empty streets, on this boulevard of broken dreams, while the city sleeps--”

“What?” Bayley stopped playing and laughed. “What is this?”

“I couldn’t help it,” Elias chuckled. “It’s the same chords.”

“Can you do that with any other songs?” Bayley asked.

Elias’s breath was warm against her neck. “Yeah, keep going.”

She resumed strumming. “Ohh I, oh, I, I’m still alive,” he sang.

“You’re ridiculous,” Bayley said.

“Here, let’s do the chorus,” Elias said, his left hand guiding hers and his right hand coming around too. “Ready?”

“I never feel ready for anything,” Bayley said.

“Me neither.” He pressed his ring finger against the fourth string. “Gotta do it anyway.”

She nodded and strummed again.

“Cause maybe,” he sang softly. “You’re gonna be the one that saves me.”


End file.
